Not Alone
by Cael Luciano
Summary: Me rambling about Izaya and Shizuo's freakishness, Warnings: slight language,me being mean to Izaya and Shizuo, T to be safe Spoilers: None really


**I wrote this when I was really bored…. Um… this isn't my first story, but it's the first one I'm uploading because I wanted to do something for Valentine's Day about love…. Well actually this was supposed to be a story about paperclips. Yeah. Got a little off track….. ^_^;; Ok, enough rambling, on to the story!**

Shrina hadn't really been the one to introduce Shizuo and Izaya.

Izaya had known all about him, years before they ever met. It was just something that was essential to know right? Well, it was for Izaya, the aspiring informant. Why shouldn't he know about the young boy who hefted fridges to protect his dairy products, the preteen with unprecedented strength and a horrible temper, the young fortissimo who would be attending the same school as he?

It would be folly _not _do a bit of digging on such an interesting human. So when he'd finally gotten face-to-face with the one who would become such a huge part of his life, it was only natural that they had fallen into such familiarity with each other immediately.

The easy pattern of violence and hatred they'd created for themselves was only the natural response. It was natural because it was expected and it was expected because it was natural. The constant brawling anyone else cringed just being in the vicinity of was routine for the two most dangerous men of Ikebukuro.

Routine. _Routine. _Laughing in Death's face at each other's hands was _routine_. Those psychotic idiots.

But it was true. No matter how exhilarating their game of cat and mouse became, no matter how painfully aware both of them were that they were risking their lives every time they crossed paths, no matter how truly terrified they were of the other, the current relationship was routine. One might even say it was ordinary.

Of course no one could be foolish enough to call what they had mundane, it was an almost every day thing for Heiwajima Shizuo and Orihara Izaya. Taunt. Threaten. Ridicule. Lunge. Dodge. Attack. Respond. Counter. Run. Chase. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat…..

To tell this dysfunctional duo to attempt to be tolerant or civil- No, to even avoid and ignore each other completely- would be met with the same response as if someone had just told an average person on the street to start rolling on their sides for transportation instead of walking with their perfectly capable feet:

"What the Hell?" "You're joking, right? That's not funny at all…" "What's wrong with you?" "Are you an idiot?" *PUNCH* "Get the Hell outta here, idiot!" "Pfffft, right ok, suuuuuuuuuuuure, I'll just do that." "Do you even _know _what you're talking about?" "Yeah, didn't think so." "Freaking weirdo."

It could go on and on.

Why should Shizuo not go on trying to wipe that smug smirk off his rival's face?

Why should Izaya avoid Ikebukuro just because it would save a lot of serious property damage to bypass the area instead of cutting straight through?

Why should Shizuo not seek his and many (_many) _others rightful revenge on the life ruining informant?

Why should Izaya go out of his way to please _one _person when he specifically worked to make almost everyone he met miserable?

It was more than something they found natural and routine. It was more than a sick pastime they took perverse pleasure in. It was more than just a little obsession.

It was their right. It was their fate. It was their love.

Hold up a second. Pause in the middle of your mindless squealing of destined love and all the disgusting affection and handholding and domesticated trivial you've associated it with.

When the masses think of love, they imagine heart-shaped candy, passion, valentines, sweet nothings murmured in the bedroom when your parents weren't around, declarations for the world to hear, sly winks when no ones looking, fondness, pride in one another, candle lit dinners, romantic comedies, flowers, texts filled to the brim with cheerful emoticons and hearts, that way of speaking only your other half with understand, marriage, picnics, photo albums full of smiling faces, sparkly vampires, babies, second honeymoons, second chances, and a general, all consuming contentment in each other's presence. It's normal to feel this way. They want you to feel this way. They program you to feel this way.

Now don't freak out on me. There's no government conspiracy, nobody's going to grab in your sleep to brainwash you about love. When I say 'they' I mean, those before you. The ones that expected everything in life you did. Love, passion, fortune, adventure etc, etc. The ones that settled for less and expect you to do the same.

And eventually, you'll settle too. And your friends and family and those you admired and those you despised. They are all the same in the end, always settling.

But can you imagine Orihara Izaya settling for less than he aimed for. Can you imagine Heiwajima Shizuo backing down and accepting less than expected? The answer should be a screeching, protesting, obnoxiously loud 'no'. If you've ever had any of these speculations, you have no clue who I'm talking about and have just been nodding along this whole time.

These people are the exception. These people are the strange, the outcasts, the misunderstood. We fear their difference and unpredictability, and rightly so.

This Is why we flee from them in droves. They are not human, not the way we have always defined it. We avoid them because we must, our innate survival instinct is not something to be taken lightly. We should never take it lightly when a voice inside starts screaming 'RUN NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!'

We can clearly see their difference, so why should they themselves not? So when they saw someone as freakish and avoided as themselves, they were exalted, and immediately celebrated each other's existence in each other's lives, in their own unique way. Amid the chaos and pain, only the two young boys could hear the mental shouting '_Are you really there?' 'Can you hear me?' 'Are you really there?' 'Are you as alone as I am?' _

It only make sense that people who are different love differently.

…_._

Shrina hadn't really been the one to introduce Shizuo and Izaya.

When they met it was just like, hey, where were you all this time? I was lonely without you, jerk! Don't go and disappear from me again!

The moment Izaya had laid eyes on Shizuo, he had wanted to cry in relief, to laugh in joy, to sing out how lucky he was. He had had to settle for applauding. He was not alone. He would never be alone. He had Shizuo. He didn't need to become a god to justify his existence any more. If Shizuo could live with being a freak, so could Izaya.

And they would never alone again.

**Wow, I'm so weird. I tried to make the ending kinda happy, without totally changing the mood of the story, tell me how I did!**


End file.
